John Barker

Sunday

Dec 2, 2012 at 6:00 AMDec 2, 2012 at 7:51 AM

Versatile Communications Inc. is a technology consulting firm based in Marlboro. The company assesses the information technology needs of its clients and then designs a plan, while providing data storage and other support services. Mr. Barker co-founded the business with Kevin Meany in 1994. The company was initially run out of Mr. Meany's Framingham home. A graduate of Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Mr. Barker previously worked as a manager for Digital Equipment Corp.'s customer satisfaction and support program. Versatile employs about 40 people at its Marlboro facility and another 18 sales representatives and engineers at other locations around the country. The company announced last week that it has been chosen to host Hewlett-Packard's Cloud Center of Excellence, one of two in New England, which will offer demonstrations of HP's cloud system platform.

Most companies have their own IT staffs. What do outside consulting companies like yours offer that clients can't accomplish on their own?

“Maybe the best way to answer that is when I get that question from customers, one of the best things we can tell them is, 'Look, a lot of the things you may be trying to get done in your businesses, operations or projects is maybe something you face once, twice or maybe even every five years, and it is something we do every day.' There are a lot of learning lessons associated with that, a certain level of expertise you obtain from that. You learn from best practices, and it makes us much more efficient in a lot of ways. It kind of augments what they might have in existing skill sets to get a particular project or solution implemented.”

Versatile announced it is opening what the company has described as the industry's first integrated solution center. Can you explain how that works and how it benefits customers?

“We think that is a differentiator for us, and there aren't any of our competitors that put this kind of center together. We kind of take a couple of pieces of how we go about working with a potential customer on trying to solve some of their problems. We have a training center here where we educate people through what kind of options they have in terms of what they're trying to get done, and we then back all of that up. We have got a saying here: 'You don't have to believe us. We will prove it to you.' We have a full demo lab, an entire infrastructure — servers, storage, networking, as well as software, and any associated pieces that you might need in the real world.”

What are some of the most pressing challenges that companies face when it comes to technology?

“We have been growing in what would be considered obviously a down economy, and a lot of the challenges are that IT departments in businesses have cut their budgets and their resources to the bone and maybe even beyond it in a lot of cases. Our average customer struggles to some degree to keep up with the day-to-day activities associated with their IT support activities. So I think they have never been more open to looking for help in those areas. What kind of solutions can I add to make my staff more productive? Am I getting the most efficient use out of my current equipment?”

Do companies usually approach you when they are expanding or adding new services, or do they sometimes just come to you because they need to rethink what they are doing?

“I think it's a combination. … I think there is constant pressure around justifying existing headcounts and existing budgets, so they're always looking for new ways to save money or be more efficient with the resources that they have. To us, that then opens the door for a conversation to find some ways we can help.”

When you are coming up with a plan for a company, how do you try to shape it so it fits in with the company's overall vision for their business?

“I think for us it comes down to training our sales force and solution architects to look at customers in a strategic fashion. ... What is the customer doing today, and where do they see themselves a few years down the road, and try to build a technology plan that supports that. And that does not necessarily mean lots of investments right away. We have been intelligent enough to understand that if we can help someone through a technology in a fashion like that, then we will help them along the way. Whether there is immediate need for some of our services, we certainly hope so, but by taking that approach, we can put together a phased approach to support their goals …”